Hey. My 14 year old son has been talking a lot lately about wanting to start a Disc Golf league for the area High Schools here and around Granite City. I think its a swell idea. His idea is to make it a recognized school club. Anyone out there have some advice on the best way to approach this?

Drive like you Stole it, Approach with Caution, Put(t) it where it belongs...

The first thing you probably have to do is find the right course(s) that the people who will be playing can make it to on time. Next, it's about figuring out the time of day. After Nov. 1 you won't have enough daylight to start any later than like 3:45 - 4pm. During DST, it's much easier to be flexible.Then, you need to have a discussion about the right day to hold it. Everyone will have plans on certain days that will take priority, so you'll just have to see if the days that you, as the organizer, will have available and figure out which works for the majority of the interested players.

After all that is out of the way, you might want to look for a start-up sponsor or three - someone who can hook you up with some CTP (closest to pin) prizes and perhaps a little something to hand to each player who joins. I started my Beginners' League with a nice little collection of swag from Gateway and have a mini/marker to hand to every player who joins the league.

Also, you'll need to advertise, advertise... word of mouth is OK, but I'd bet there are a lot of players who you would never know about and even some people who have never played that will see a flyer and think, "Hmm, that sounds like fun."

Another thing is that you'll need to gauge your players skill level and interests: are they all of similar skill level or is there a great disparity? This will effect choices on the format (singles, partners doubles, random draw doubles, etc.) and will help guide decisions about how to potentially create divisional splits for payouts.

Which brings us to payouts and, of course, league dues. How much will it cost to play? Will it be an up front, "This is the fee to join the league and covers you from league start to league finish" or a "pay to play by the game" fee? Will there be a minimum attendance requirement or just a play when you can show up ruling. You will probably consider an Ace Pool and how that will be paid into and paid out.

Anyhow, that's what I've learned from starting my league. The toughest part is getting players and keeping them showing up regularly.